Paper Search MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple platforms. Designed for LLM tools like Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.

中文文档

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Supported Platforms

Core Platforms

Platform	Search	Download	Read	Description
arXiv	✅	✅	✅	Preprints: Physics, Math, CS, Stats, Biology, Finance
Semantic Scholar	✅	✅	✅	General academic search, 200M+ papers, AI-powered
PubMed	✅	❌	❌	Biomedical literature
bioRxiv	✅	✅	✅	Biology preprints
medRxiv	✅	✅	✅	Medical preprints
CrossRef	✅	❌	❌	DOI metadata, 150M+ records
IACR	✅	✅	✅	Cryptography papers
Google Scholar	✅	❌	❌	All-discipline search (web scraping)
RePEc/IDEAS	✅	❌	❌	Economics paper library, 4.5M+ items
Sci-Hub	❌	✅	✅	Download paywalled papers (pre-2023)

RePEc/IDEAS Features

RePEc is the largest open economics bibliography, with rich search options:

Search Fields: Full text / Abstract / Keywords / Title / Author

Sort Options: Relevance / Newest / Oldest / Citations / Recent & Relevant

Document Types: Journal Articles / Working Papers / Book Chapters / Books

Institution/Journal Filters:

Category	Options
Research Institutions	nber, imf, worldbank, ecb, bis, cepr, iza
Federal Reserve	fed, fed_ny, fed_chicago, fed_stlouis, fed_sf
Top 5 Journals	aer, jpe, qje, econometrica, restud
Other Journals	jfe, jme, aej_macro, aej_micro, aej_applied

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Quick Start

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/h-lu/paper-search-mcp.git
cd paper-search-mcp

# Install with uv (recommended)
uv pip install -e .

# Or use pip
pip install -e .

Configure Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS):

Using uv (recommended):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paper_search_server": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "-m", "paper_search_mcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "",
        "CROSSREF_MAILTO": "your_email@example.com",
        "NCBI_API_KEY": "",
        "PAPER_DOWNLOAD_PATH": "~/paper_downloads"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using Python:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paper_search_server": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "paper_search_mcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "",
        "CROSSREF_MAILTO": "your_email@example.com",
        "NCBI_API_KEY": "",
        "PAPER_DOWNLOAD_PATH": "~/paper_downloads"
      }
    }
  }
}

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Usage Guide

Choose Tools by Discipline

General academic search    → search_semantic or search_crossref
CS/Physics preprints       → search_arxiv
Biomedical                 → search_pubmed + download_scihub(doi)
Economics                  → search_repec (supports NBER, IMF, Fed, AER, etc.)
Cryptography               → search_iacr
Download paywalled papers  → download_scihub(doi) [pre-2023]

Typical Workflow

# 1. Search for papers
papers = search_semantic("climate change agriculture", max_results=5)

# 2. Get DOI
doi = papers[0]["doi"]

# 3. Download via Sci-Hub (older papers)
pdf_path = download_scihub(doi)

# 4. Read full text
text = read_scihub_paper(doi)

RePEc Economics Search Examples

# Search NBER working papers
search_repec("inflation expectations", series='nber')

# Search AER journal articles, sorted by newest
search_repec("causal inference", series='aer', sort_by='newest')

# Search Fed papers, with year filter
search_repec("monetary policy", series='fed', year_from=2020)

# Search by author
search_repec("Acemoglu", search_field='author')

# Get paper details (with full abstract)
get_repec_paper("https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/32000.html")

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Complete Tool List

Search Tools

Tool	Description
search_arxiv	Search arXiv preprints
search_semantic	Semantic Scholar general search
search_crossref	CrossRef DOI metadata search
search_pubmed	PubMed biomedical search
search_biorxiv	bioRxiv biology preprints
search_medrxiv	medRxiv medical preprints
search_iacr	IACR cryptography papers
search_google_scholar	Google Scholar search
search_repec	RePEc/IDEAS economics search

Download Tools

Tool	Description
download_arxiv	Download arXiv PDF (free)
download_semantic	Download open access papers
download_biorxiv	Download bioRxiv PDF
download_medrxiv	Download medRxiv PDF
download_iacr	Download IACR PDF
download_scihub	Download via Sci-Hub

Read Tools (PDF → Markdown)

Tool	Description
read_arxiv_paper	Read arXiv paper
read_semantic_paper	Read Semantic Scholar paper
read_biorxiv_paper	Read bioRxiv paper
read_medrxiv_paper	Read medRxiv paper
read_iacr_paper	Read IACR paper
read_scihub_paper	Read Sci-Hub downloaded paper

Helper Tools

Tool	Description
get_repec_paper	Get RePEc paper details (full abstract)
get_crossref_paper_by_doi	Get paper metadata by DOI

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Environment Variables

Variable	Purpose	Recommended
SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY	Increase Semantic Scholar rate limit	✅
CROSSREF_MAILTO	CrossRef polite pool access	✅
NCBI_API_KEY	Increase PubMed rate limit	Optional
SCIHUB_MIRROR	Custom Sci-Hub mirror	Optional
PAPER_DOWNLOAD_PATH	PDF download directory (default: ~/paper_downloads)	Optional

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Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/openags/paper-search-mcp.git
cd paper-search-mcp

# Create virtual environment
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate

# Install dev dependencies
uv pip install -e .

# Run tests
uv run pytest tests/ -v

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License

MIT License

Original code based on paper-search-mcp
Copyright (c) 2025 OPENAGS

Modifications and enhancements
Copyright (c) 2025 Haibo Lu

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🎓 Happy researching!